11 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Hapoel Haifa will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Maccabi Tel Aviv were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
17 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
A brace, and Hélio Varela takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hélio Varela provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $3.3M has been paid because Koffi Kouao is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Koffi Kouao is living that version at Maccabi Tel Aviv, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Maccabi Tel Aviv close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 21 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
10 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Maccabi Tel Aviv people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marek Rodák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” LNZ had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Nasr have kept their man, and Maccabi Tel Aviv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Neftchi this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kervin Andrade and Maccabi Tel Aviv agree another 5 years.
The phone has started ringing about Roy Nawi again, and this time the name on the line is Hapoel Kfar Saba. Maccabi Tel Aviv are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I did not go to Maccabi Petach Tikva to sit and watch. I want to come back to Maccabi Tel Aviv and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Maccabi Tel Aviv people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Maccabi Tel Aviv asked and Hapoel Tel Aviv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Mohamed Camara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Marek Rodák falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Maccabi Tel Aviv game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Djoliba runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Mohamed Camara and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Marek Rodák falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The phone has started ringing about Itai Zafrani again, and this time the name on the line is Hapoel Raanana. Maccabi Tel Aviv are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Omer Atzili falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
72 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Elad Madmon had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Maccabi Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Tel Aviv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Marek Rodák falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad26 Jul 2027
11 new faces, and Maccabi Tel Aviv are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Maccabi Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zob Ahan had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Mohamed Camara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The phone has started ringing about Elad Madmon again, and this time the name on the line is Bnei Yehuda. Maccabi Tel Aviv are listening politely and promising nothing.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Maccabi Tel Aviv are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marek Rodák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Maccabi Tel Aviv game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Raanana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Mohamed Camara and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 15 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Itamar Noy falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabi Kanichowsky signs something — a contract at Maccabi Tel Aviv or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Tel Aviv can pretend not to have heard.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Add another name to the list: Djoliba have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Matty Cudjoe. The answer from Maccabi Tel Aviv has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marek Rodák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Moisés Ramírez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Persebaya will make the call about Noam Ben-Harush this week. Maccabi Tel Aviv have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
10 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
72 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Persija had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Tel Aviv can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $2.8M has been paid because Marek Rodák is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Beitar Jerusalem pay $3.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Mohamed Camara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Raanana have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Elad Madmon. The answer from Maccabi Tel Aviv has not changed — yet.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Maccabi Tel Aviv will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Acre waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Maccabi Tel Aviv have gone to Al-Ettifaq with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Mohamed Camara and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Add another name to the list: Beitar Jerusalem have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sagiv Jehezkel. The answer from Maccabi Tel Aviv has not changed — yet.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Anis Ayash and Maccabi Tel Aviv agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Moisés Ramírez wants continental football; whether Maccabi Tel Aviv can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hélio Varela and Maccabi Tel Aviv agree another 4 years.
The young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Maccabi Tel Aviv who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Maccabi Tel Aviv has been clear about where Sagiv Jehezkel stands, which is more than many ever get.
72 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Dor Peretz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Camara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
14 games, 13 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Maccabi Tel Aviv now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mohamed Camara is on it.
3 appearances, 0 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Maccabi Tel Aviv will have this month.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
A 5‑1 win over Beitar Jerusalem, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabi Kanichowsky provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Maccabi Tel Aviv had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Maccabi Tel Aviv know it.
Hélio Varela and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yoyo Aviv and Maccabi Tel Aviv agree another 4 years.
Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Tel Aviv. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad10 May 2027
Itamar Noy falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Tel Aviv. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maccabi Tel Aviv, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 goals in 11 games at PSM — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Maccabi Tel Aviv updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Something was said to Moisés Ramírez and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad3 May 2027
Itamar Noy falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Mohamed Camara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I watch every Maccabi Tel Aviv game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bnei Yehuda runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
10 goals in 10 games at PSM — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Maccabi Tel Aviv updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
7 goals in 10 games at Bali United — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Maccabi Tel Aviv updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Tel Aviv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Roi Mishpati has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Tel Aviv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Mohamed Camara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Hélio Varela is on it.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Itamar Noy falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Omer Atzili trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Itamar Noy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 goals in 8 games at PSM — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Maccabi Tel Aviv updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Tel Aviv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
72 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Moisés Ramírez wants continental football; whether Maccabi Tel Aviv can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Dor Peretz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Maccabi Tel Aviv told Gabi Kanichowsky something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Omer Hemed and Maccabi Tel Aviv agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Hélio Varela and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I did not go to Bnei Yehuda to sit and watch. I want to come back to Maccabi Tel Aviv and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sagiv Melikson commits to Maccabi Tel Aviv for another 3 years.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Itamar Noy falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Hélio Varela was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Guy Benayoun has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ofir Dabbur has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Omer Hemed is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gil Shechter has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ori Shnaper has just signed for Maccabi Tel Aviv, and for once the answer mattered.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Tel Aviv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Osher Davida has written the date down.
5 goals in 6 games at Bali United — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Maccabi Tel Aviv updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Roi Mishpati and Maccabi Tel Aviv agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mohamed Camara is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Itamar Noy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Tel Aviv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
8 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The offer from Molde for Ion Nicolăescu was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Mohamed Camara and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 72 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Mohamed Camara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Dor Peretz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Dor Peretz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
An average of 7.04 in a first team he is several years too young for. Maccabi Tel Aviv have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Ion Nicolăescu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.30. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Tel Aviv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Maccabi Tel Aviv can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ion Nicolăescu and Maccabi Tel Aviv agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Tel Aviv lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maccabi Tel Aviv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two goals and a mark of 9.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.46, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Emir Sahiti takes the afternoon — 8.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Emir Sahiti provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Maccabi Tel Aviv close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Tel Aviv lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Tel Aviv can pretend not to have heard.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Persib had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Maccabi Tel Aviv asked and CSKA Sofia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Raz Shlomo again, and this time the name on the line is Esteghlal Ahvaz. Maccabi Tel Aviv are listening politely and promising nothing.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Mohamed Camara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Semen Padang waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Kifisia did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $5.5M for Moisés Ramírez, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
$3.3M was the most the club would pay and Maccabi Netanya were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Persib have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daniel Dappa. The answer from Maccabi Tel Aviv has not changed — yet.
In brief
The terracesMaccabi Tel Aviv spend $5.5M on the signing the town wanted
Maccabi Tel Aviv have gone to Kifisia with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kervin Andrade did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The offer from Bnei Sakhnin for Elad Madmon was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Omer Atzili is a Maccabi Tel Aviv player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The clubs have shaken hands with Beitar Jerusalem; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Maccabi Tel Aviv had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The offer went to Hapoel Tel Aviv this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Ido Shahar again, and this time the name on the line is Hapoel Kfar Saba. Maccabi Tel Aviv are listening politely and promising nothing.
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Bnei Yehuda; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Kervin Andrade wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Kervin Andrade found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Bnei Sakhnin went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Kervin Andrade, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.26
A mark of 8.26 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ofir Solomon, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Kervin Andrade, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.31
A mark of 8.31 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Osher Davida
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
A 3‑0 win over Maccabi Petach Tikva, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kervin Andrade did not need any: 7.94, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Position 1 with 44 on the board, and the queues outside the ticket office are the part of a promotion push that never shows up in a table. The town has decided this one is real.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Mohamed Camara and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Beitar Jerusalem next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Emir Sahiti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Tel Aviv lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Mohamed Camara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osher Davida is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.29 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Maccabi Tel Aviv told Issouf Sissokho something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Maccabi Petach Tikva kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Maccabi Tel Aviv will be asked about the last half hour all week.
The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Maccabi Petach Tikva; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Tel Aviv lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
34 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
9 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.31 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The words a physio says slowly. 48 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Marked 8.15 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The words a physio says slowly. 57 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.36, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Osher Davida
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ofir Solomon on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Matty Cudjoe
The words a physio says slowly. 64 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denny Gropper will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Tel Aviv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osher Davida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Tel Aviv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabi Kanichowsky provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Mohamed Camara and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ion Nicolăescu and Maccabi Tel Aviv agree another 4 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Osher Davida falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gabi Kanichowsky. 3‑1 against Maccabi Netanya, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.23, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ofir Solomon, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The words a physio says slowly. 81 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Mohamed Camara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Kervin Andrade has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Kervin Andrade’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Ion Nicolăescu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.66. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ester Sokler is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Mohamed Camara
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ester Sokler
The words a physio says slowly. 88 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ion Nicolăescu. 2‑0 against Bnei Sakhnin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Tel Aviv lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Tel Aviv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Dor Peretz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ofir Solomon, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Tel Aviv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Maccabi Tel Aviv ran out of time with Maccabi Haifa. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Osher Davida was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Ofir Solomon could afford to be generous.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona next, and one man in the Maccabi Tel Aviv dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Tel Aviv lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Persija had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$900.0K settles it between the clubs for Nevot Ratner
Maccabi Haifa have accepted the money. What Maccabi Tel Aviv do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Beitar Jerusalem wanted more than $3.7M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Maccabi Tel Aviv close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Maccabi Tel Aviv had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at CSKA Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Maccabi Tel Aviv asked and Beitar Jerusalem said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Hélio Varela was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The words a physio says slowly. 120 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maccabi Tel Aviv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$4.0M was the most the club would pay and Beitar Jerusalem were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Netanya have kept their man, and Maccabi Tel Aviv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal with CSKA Moscow is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A 1‑0 win over Maccabi Haifa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
128 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Tel Aviv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
$4.0M on the table at Beitar Jerusalem. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Maccabi Tel Aviv asked and Beitar Jerusalem said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matty Cudjoe is living that version at Maccabi Tel Aviv, and it tends to show in the first month.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Matty Cudjoe from Bnei Sakhnin for $2.9M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Add another name to the list: PSM have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sayed Abu Farchi. The answer from Maccabi Tel Aviv has not changed — yet.
135 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Tel Aviv lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Maccabi Tel Aviv and Bnei Sakhnin have settled on $2.9M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Apollon have kept their man, and Maccabi Tel Aviv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Maccabi Tel Aviv have gone to Betis with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Mohamed Camara and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Maccabi Tel Aviv offered $120.0K; San Lorenzo said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabi Kanichowsky signs something — a contract at Maccabi Tel Aviv or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
142 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Tel Aviv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Persebaya had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
$3.7M on the table at Hapoel Beer Sheva. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Manchester City keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hélio Varela is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Beer Sheva have kept their man, and Maccabi Tel Aviv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Camara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Raanana have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ben Lederman. The answer from Maccabi Tel Aviv has not changed — yet.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Maccabi Tel Aviv have made the call to Penarol. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to Manchester City: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Maccabi Tel Aviv have made the call to Shakhtar. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.